Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Bog Jacket Question

Hi all. I've recently finished knitting a Bog Jacket. Unfortunately, I was a bit over zealous when casting on stitches for the sleeves and now my sleeves are too long. Like 4 inches too long! Any ideas of what I can do? I would just turn them under but they look fat and unsightly. I considered "steeking" the sleeves, cutting off the excess, then tacking down the cut edge to the inside, maybe adding some i-cord trim to hide the "evidence". Anyone ever tried such a thing? Any help you can offer would be much appreciated! Thanks!

I would do as rebecca says and fold up first, because I like the look of a folded four-inch cuff. Alternately I would steek, and then consider knitting a cuff "liner" or "facing" in a smaller/thinner gauge wool (you might need to pick up more than one stitch per loop here) to cover the steek edges. Of course if I did that, then I'd have to do it for other hems. Might be pretty cool in a good conrasty color...

I had 4 inch too long sleeves on a cardigan I knit earlier this year. I carefully picked up stitches around the bottom of the sleeve about 5 inches up and then cut it the row below my picked up stitches. I ripped out the little excess yarn below the stitches and then knit down to create a 1 inch garter stitch border. It was time consuming but worked perfectly. No one can tell that I cut the sleeves. Good luck.

The bog jacket's sleeves are knit garter stitch where the stitch rows run vertically up the arm -- rather than horizontally around like most sweaters. Does this need to be taken into consideration for the alteration suggestions people are offering?